The bridge on the Kwai

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Movie
German title The bridge on the Kwai
Original title The Bridge on the River Kwai
Country of production UK , USA
original language English , Japanese , Thai
Publishing year 1957
length 156 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director David Lean
script Michael Wilson
Carl Foreman
production Sam Spiegel
music Malcolm Arnold
camera Jack Hildyard
cut Peter Taylor
occupation

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a feature film by David Lean from the year 1957 , which on the eponymous novel by Pierre Boulle based. In some cases, however, the novel and the film differ from one another. The eponymous bridge is historical; it crosses the Mae Nam Khwae Yai (Khwae Yai River) near the Thai city of Kanchanaburi .

action

The film is about a group of British prisoners of war in a Japanese camp in Burma in early 1943 . The prisoners are supposed to build a wooden railway bridge over the Mae Nam Khwae Yai ( Khwae Yai River - "Kwai"). To ensure that the bridge is completed on time, the Japanese camp commander, Colonel Saito, also assigns the British officers to work. The commander of the captured battalion , Lt. Col. ( Colonel ) Nicholson, this command is resisted. He is referring to the Geneva Convention , which Japan has not signed. Saito reacts with drastic penalties, but finally gives in - the officers are freed from physical work and given management activities.

Nicholson tries to ensure that his soldiers keep their pride and dignity and do not allow themselves to be humiliated by the Japanese guards like ordinary slave laborers. He wants to prove the superiority of the British soldiers to Saito by building a more technically complex bridge in less time, although he must be aware of it in order to help the enemy. The task pushes the soldiers to their peak, and the bridge will be completed on time. After completion, Saito has to indirectly admit the superiority of the prisoners.

During this time, Commander Shears, an American, fled the prison camp. Totally exhausted, he is first cared for by locals and then in an English hospital. When he has recovered, he is immediately deployed again to help with the demolition of the bridge as a local expert together with an Allied commando .

At the inauguration of the bridge, Nicholson and Saito discover the explosive device and a gun battle ensues between the Japanese and the Allied soldiers. Saito is stabbed to death by the Canadian Lieutenant Joyce, who in turn dies like Commander Shears in the Japanese gun battle. Meanwhile, Nicholson tries to prevent the demolition. For him the bridge had become more than a structure for the enemy, namely a symbol of the resistance and the will to survive of his soldiers. During this attempt, however, he was shot by the British Major Warden, who remained behind, and fell dying on the ignition device, causing him to trigger the explosion himself. The plot of the film ends (unlike in the book) with the destruction of the wooden bridge that was built.

Historical reference

Today's bridge

In fact, in Kanchanaburi, 111 km west-northwest of Bangkok , prisoners of war were forced to build two bridges. First a wooden bridge was built and five months later a steel bridge was added. Both were destroyed by the Allies, the wooden bridge first. The steel bridge was rebuilt in 1946 by a Japanese company. In 1971 it was repaired; it is still in operation today ( 14 ° 2 ′ 27 ″  N , 99 ° 30 ′ 13 ″  E ).

Yamashita Tomoyuki's quote "Enjoy your work" was used in the film.

Filming

The film was shot in Sri Lanka , then Ceylon, and Great Britain . For the film, the wooden bridge was recreated at the location in Ceylon near Kitulgala over the Kelani . It consisted of 1200 bamboo tubes, was 35 meters high and 130 meters long. This made the bridge the largest bridge setting in film history to date . It was blown up during the filming for the final scene while an unoccupied train drove over it.

Reactions

Some viewers reacted with displeasure to the film, as they saw it as a positive representation of unconditional military duty. It was countered that it was precisely this uncritical attitude that was taken ad absurdum in the film and therefore ironized. The end and the differentiating psychological representation of the officer by Alec Guinness point to this attitude.

In the relevant museums in Thailand it is pointed out that the greatest burden for the prisoners - poor hygiene and the diseases resulting from it, from which the men were marked - does not appear in the film or only marginally.

Film music

The Colonel Bogey March , whistled by the British soldiers when they marched into the camp, became a world hit that was often picked up, e.g. B. in the context of television advertising. The title was whistled because most of the verses of the text could not have got past the film censors. Kenneth J. Alford composed the march in 1914.

The Colonel Bogey March is often mistakenly called the River Kwai March . The River Kwai March was created by Malcolm Arnold as an orchestral counter melody to the whistled march of the soldiers for the film. Arnold's march appears in several places in the film and can also be heard at the very end. Mitch Miller's famous recording uses footage from both marches.

Awards

Oscars 1958 :

The film also received three Golden Globes

  • Best Director (David Lean)
  • Best film - drama
  • Best Actor - Drama (Alec Guinness)

The film also received four British Film Academy Awards

The film also received some coveted trophies from the critics' associations: Awards from the National Board of Review

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

The two screenwriters Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were blacklisted at the time and were not listed as authors. In 1984 they received a posthumous award.

In 1997 it was accepted into the “ National Film Registry ” of the Library of Congress (USA).

The American Film Institute led the film in the list of the 100 best films of all time in the 1998 edition in 13th place. In 2007 the film made it to number 36. The film is represented in the list of the 100 best thrillers of all time, which was also compiled by the American Film Institute, at number 58. The film reached number 14 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Most Inspirational Films of All Time. The British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1999 at number 11 of the best British films of all time .

German version

The German dubbing was created in 1958 in the studio of Ultra Film Synchron GmbH Berlin . The dialogue book was written by the film critic Friedrich Luft , and Alfred Vohrer directed the dubbing .

role actor Voice actor
Cmdr. Shears William Holden Paul Klinger
Colonel Nicholson Alec Guinness Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
Major Warden Jack Hawkins Wolfgang Lukschy
Colonel Saito Sessue Hayakawa Werner Peters
Major Clipton James Donald Gert Günther Hoffmann
Lieutenant Joyce Geoffrey Horne Eckart Dux
Colonel Green André Morell Siegfried Schürenberg
Captain Reeves Peter Williams Friedrich Joloff
Major Hughes John Boxer Horst Niendorf
Grogan Percy Herbert Franz Nicklisch
Baker Harold Goodwin Peter Weiss
Captain Kamematsu Henry Okawa Walter Bluhm
Lieutenant Miura Keiichiro Katsumoto Erich Poremski
sister Ann Sears Tilly Lauenstein
Yai MRB Chakrabandhu Wi Bo Wo

Reviews

  • “Effective and carefully staged war adventure, ambivalent in its ambivalent attitude between the apotheosis of unconditional military duty and ironic criticism of the absurd futility of war. Outstanding: Alec Guinness' psychologically differentiated presentation. ” - Lexicon of international film (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997.
  • “Lean's directing is masterful. It perfectly combines action scenes with character studies. ”(Rating: 5 stars = masterpiece) - The Motion Picture Guide

Publications on optical storage media

  • Collector's Edition: The Bridge on the River Kwai . 2 DVD set. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2000.
  • Award Winner Collection: The Bridge on the Kwai . 2 DVD set. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2008.
  • The bridge on the Kwai . Blu-ray. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2010.
  • The bridge on the Kwai . 4k Ultra HD. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2017.

Soundtrack

  • Malcolm Arnold , Kenneth Alford and others: The Bridge on the River Kwai. Original soundtrack . Columbia Records / Sony Music Entertainment, New York 1995, sound carrier no. CK 66131 - digitally restored original recording of the film music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Arnold and Mitch Miller & His Orchestra

literature

  • Pierre Boulle: The bridge on the Kwai (=  Heyne-Taschenbuch 5835 ). 8th, unabridged and approved edition. Munich 1993, ISBN 3-453-01297-6 (license from Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna / Hamburg).
  • Michael Coyne: Epic Encounters. The Films of David Lean . Tauris, London 2004, ISBN 1-86064-513-5 (English).
  • Thomas Klein: The bridge on the Kwai. In: Thomas Klein, Marcus Stiglegger, Bodo Traber (eds.): Film genres. War Movie. Reclam Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-018411-8 , pp. 112-118.
  • Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclam's film guide. 7th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 102f.
  • Hans-Jürgen Kubiak: The Oscar Films . The best films from 1927/28 to 2004 / The best non-English language films from 1947 to 2004 / The best animated films from 2001 to 2004. Schüren, Marburg 2005, ISBN 3-89472-386-6 .
  • James Ursini, Alain Silver: David Lean and His Films . Silman-James Press, Los Angeles 1992, ISBN 1-879505-00-2 (English).
  • Sessue Hayakawa : The Samurai's Son. The life of Sessue Hayakawa. Henry Goverts Verlag, Stuttgart 1963 (English original title: Zen showed me the way ; autobiography of the actor, in which he also describes his experiences before and during the shooting of the film).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams film guide. 7th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1987, p. 102f.
  2. ↑ Sri Lanka for advanced students
  3. ↑ Die Brücke am Kwai , Illustrierte Film-Bühne No. 4182, Munich undated / Die Brücke am Kwai , entry in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de